AACN News—July 1998—Best Practices to be Showcased in Chicago

Vol. 15, No. 7, JULY 1998

The first Showcase for Innovation and Best Practices is scheduled to take place October 2 through 4, 1998, in Chicago, Ill.

Sponsored by the Best Practice Network, this showcase offers participants a multifaceted educational program that promotes collaboration and sharing of expertise among healthcare professionals from nursing and other disciplines. The program is designed for nurses, physicians, psychologists, social workers, managers, educators, and those who want to make a difference in healthcare and wellness.

Keynote speakers and their topics are Gerry Faust, “Clinical Innovation as a Healthcare Strategy”; Tim Kight, “Architects of Change: Best Practices, Innovation and Personal Best”; and Tim Porter-O’Grady, RN, EdD, PhD, FAAN, “Innovation & Creativity: Living in a Transformed
Health System.”

In addition, concurrent sessions, roundtable discussions, and Creative Solutions posters are scheduled.

Porter-O’Grady has worked in healthcare for 27 years. His various positions have included staff nurse and hospital executive. He is currently a senior partner in an international healthcare consulting firm that specializes in organizational innovation and issues on health service transformation. He also serves on the graduate faculty of Emory University of Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga.
In his presentations, he challenges healthcare leaders to develop new ways of thinking, knowing, and doing.

Faust, of Faust Management Corporation, is well known as a dynamic speaker for organizations both inside and outside of healthcare. He offers new and creative ways to analyze and manage change and innovation.

Kight is founder and president of Management Resources Group, which provides consulting services and learning resources to assist companies and healthcare in building and managing high performance. He combines a unique background of research and practical experience to bring powerful insights to the challenges of innovation, motivation, and individual and professional performance in today’s competitive healthcare world.

A special “Heroes in Healthcare” dinner to honor outstanding clinical leaders from the Chicago area is planned for October 2. (See related article below.) Featured speaker is Carol S. Pearson, whose topic is “The Hero Within.” Pearson is president of the Center for Archetypal Studies and Applications in Washington, DC, and author of The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By. In addition, she is senior editor of The Inner Edge: A Resource for Enlightened Business Practice, a new bimonthly newsletter published by InnoVision Communications, a subsidiary of AACN.
Proceeds from the $100-per-person dinner will help support ongoing development and maintenance of the Best Practice Network Web site. Dinner attendees do not have to be registered for the Showcase.

The Best Practice Network was established to promote and facilitate the exchange of information as well as to encourage collaboration among healthcare professionals. The concept emerged from the 1996 summit meetings of nursing leaders, including representatives of AACN, who wanted to proactively shape a vision for the future of healthcare. The vision of the Best Practice Network is to provide a place where innovative solutions and best practices can be shared among nurses and other healthcare practitioners to promote healthy communities and provide optimal patient care.
“Best practice” is defined as a process or service that has been successfully implemented and refined, and that sets new standards or creates a new wave of innovation involving a cost-effective model of the work process.

For more information about the Best Practice Network or the Showcase for Innovation and Best Practices, call (800) 394-5995, ext 375, or e-mail: showcase@best4health.org.
A Showcase brochure and registration materials are also available by calling (800) 899-2226, or online at www.best4health.org.

Wanted: Chicago Area Heroes in Healthcare

Help us tell the stories of the “Heroes in Healthcare.” The Best Practice Network is seeking nominations of "Heroes in Healthcare" from the Chicago area.

Nominate your hero from any healthcare discipline or specialty! As part of the Showcase for Innovation and Best Practices, the Best Practice Network will honor healthcare heroes from the Chicago area who have made an impact on their patients or communities. Maybe, they have inspired you as a role model or practitioner.

Selected heroes will be honored at the Heroes in Healthcare Dinner on October 2, 1998, at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Each hero will receive a crystal award and monetary gift.

Carol S. Pearson, senior editor of the InnerEdge: A Resource for Enlightened Business Practice, and best-selling author of The Hero Within: Six Archetypes We Live By, will be the featured speaker at this dinner event.

Nominations for the Heroes in Healthcare honor are due by August 15, 1998. To nominate a Hero in Healthcare from the Chicago area, visit the Best Practice Network home page at www.best4health.org or call (800) 394-5995, ext 375. Cost to attend the dinner is $100 person. Proceeds will assist in supporting the ongoing development and maintenance of the Best Practice Network Web site. You do not need to attend the Showcase to participate in this event.